Sheeted materials containing fibers in a large proportion, such as nonwoven fabric, synthetic paper, and woven fabric (hereinafter referred to as a fibrous sheet) are used as material of a disparate range of products including articles requiring breathability. In the manufacture of articles printed with a decorative pattern, a brand mark of the manufacturer, etc, these fibrous sheets are not infrequently used as a printing medium. For example, in the field of absorbent articles such as disposable diapers and sanitary napkins, nonwoven fabrics are applied as various members exemplified by an exterior sheet (backsheet) disposed on the garment-facing side of an absorbent material. In these kinds of absorbent articles, printing a pattern has been often done on their plastic film such as a backsheet but recently sometimes done on a nonwoven fabric of its external laminate or a nonwoven fabric for a commercial package. Gravure printing or flexographic printing has been used to print nonwoven fabrics but recently replaced with inkjet printing as described, e.g., in JP-A-62-69802 and JP-A-2000-266. Inkjet printing is a printing technique where drops of ink ejected from minute inkjet head nozzles are applied to a substrate to be printed. Inkjet printing requires no printing plate and achieves high-speed printing with relatively simple equipment. Incorporated into the production process of an absorbent article, inkjet printing allows for efficient production of absorbent articles with a wide variety of printed patterns as designed.
Fibrous sheets fit for inkjet printing have been proposed. Among them is a laminate composed of a cellulosic nonwoven web and nonwoven fabric containing a natural or synthetic polymer joined via an adhesive, which is proposed in JP-A-2001-518984 as an inkjet printable material providing a printed sheet material free from feathering and excellent in colorfastness to washing.